Lansdale council approves budget with no tax hike, fee increases

LANSDALE — The 2014 budget for Lansdale Borough is now officially up for review, and as expected it contains good news for borough taxpayers.

“This budget, as required by law, is balanced and does not require a tax or utility rate increase. Nor does it require borrowing from the planned reserves garnered from the tax increase three years ago,” said Borough Manager Timi Kirchner.

“In the last four years, we’ve created a template for best practices in local government. The first step was to stop dipping into savings to pay for daily operations,” she said.

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A $10 million capital project bond borrowing in 2010 has been used to repair numerous roads and utility lines, buy updated equipment and set forth new programs like new borough human resources and information technology systems, wayfinding and branding initiatives - including the “in motion” slogan incorporated throughout the budget presentation - and help pave the way, in some cases literally, for several revenue generating projects to come to fruition over the past year, Kirchner told borough council.

“Wastewater treatment, streetscape, street and utility improvements (are) real life examples that studies do not sit on shelves. They are activated,” she said, and those projects account for more than $10 million in investment over four years.

The Lansdale Parking Authority has neared profitability, new housing on Cannon Avenue is inhabited while a similar project on Fourth Street nears completion, and community events organized by borough nonprofit Discover Lansdale and supported by the borough have helped draw crowds to town, she said.

“All of this activity is supported by this proposed budget through the work of our staff, and through well-conceived debt service that assures that our structures and infrastructure continue to function well and improve the look and feel of the community,” she said.

In committee discussions borough Code Enforcement staff have suggested that certain code permit fees be adjusted as part of the borough’s 2014 fee schedule to be approved in December. According to Kirchner and Shapiro, those changes are designed to remain revenue-neutral and would have minimal impact, on the order of $10,000, on the final $31.44 million budget.

Breaking down the impact on the average borough resident, over 77 percent of annual total tax bills go to taxes issued by the North Penn School District, she said, with 12 percent of the total going to the borough and just shy of 11 percent to Montgomery County. “For that 12 percent, or on average $399 per year, through sound financial practices our taxpayers have the assurance that the services and facilities that they own are in good shape, now and into the future,” she said.

Councilman Dan Dunigan, chair of its Administration and Finance committee for the past four years, said as his time on council ends he’s gratified that endless hours spent combing through the borough’s finances have paid off in added revenues, lower costs, and plans for the future.

“I have said all along that I have tried to put us in a position that the group that follows us will have to actively work to screw it up,” Dunigan said.

“I’ve heard from a few folks, detractors, that ‘Anybody could’ve done what you did.’ If that’s really true, then why did I have to do it, and why did we have to do it?” he said.

Borough council voted unanimously to advertise the 2014 budget for public review, and also voted unanimously to prepare and advertise an ordinance maintaining the borough’s real estate tax rate at 3.5 mills for 2014.

The formal budget will be available for review at the borough’s temporary municipal complex, 645 West Ninth Street, starting Thursday and the budget and Kirchner’s budget presentation will be available on the borough’s website www.Lansdale.org. Visit that site or follow @LansdalePA on Twitter for more information.

Lansdale Borough Council next meets at 9 p.m. on Dec. 4 with various committee meetings scheduled for earlier that night, and council’s next business meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. on Dec. 18, both at the NPSD Educational Services Center, 401 E. Hancock Street.